


Here's Unbroken Bone

by Iki_teru



Series: In the litany of your name [5]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Gen, also here forever for aerith and yuffie bffs/sisters, also pls someone stop letting me try to write fight scenes, also reincarnations are fun to play with, also someone pls edit for me i am bad at it, so begins the slowest burn ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 03:16:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9529376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iki_teru/pseuds/Iki_teru
Summary: Yuffie finally gets to bring Cid and Aerith along to the Coliseum to watch a match. Sadly Phil isn't letting just anyone fight in the Platinum Match although he won't say why. Choosing to stay and support their friend Sora, the gang in unprepared for just who his opponent is (Spoiler alert: It's Sephiroth and nobody is prepared for THAT)





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is technically set before my last entry to this series, which means they still live in Traverse Town, because LOL why would I do anything in order. As always this is self edited, con crit is welcome and appreciated.

"I can't wait until we get there!" To say Yuffie was excited would be an understatement. She was practically vibrating in her seat. "I've wanted to take you to the Coliseum for _so_ long. You're gonna love it, the battles are kind of scary to watch but the snacks are really good and you'll get to see Leon and me really kick some ass. This is gonna be great."  

Aerith laughed, resting a hand on Yuffie's knee. "I'm sure it's going to be amazing. But if you don't calm down you'll be sick before we even get there." 

Which, okay, fair. Yuffie had her reliable Mr. Bucket clutched between her knees and she was fine as long as she kept her gaze down, focused at the inside of the bucket (freshly scrubbed and smelling like lemon and ginger which helped settle her stomach a little.) But she couldn't _help_ it, it had taken so much wheedling and annoying Leon to get him to agree that _everyone_ deserved a little off world break. Aerith had been an easy sell, she'd listened to Yuffie yap about the Coliseum for so long that Yuffie barely had to get the question out before Aerith was saying "Yes" and "when do we leave?" 

Cid had been weirdly reticent about the idea. Stating all sorts of things, like how busy he was (which was a bold faced lie, he was really only busy whenever Sora and crew popped by. Otherwise he was keeping himself occupied doing odd jobs around the town) and the fact that they had run into Cloud last time, like it was a bad thing. "What if ol' spikes ain't ready to be confronted with the rest of his past?" Which was a weak excuse, the Coliseum was always bustling and crowded, it would be easy enough to spot Cloud and his spiky blond hair from far away enough to give them a chance to make themselves scarce. Yuffie had to resort to calling Cid a scaredy cat before he finally bit the end off a toothpick and hollered back that he'd be there whenever she damn well set up the date. 

So here they were, all four happily (or as happy as _some_ members of the party were likely to get, and no for once she wasn't talking about Leon, really what was the world coming to when he was the baseline for pleasant company) crammed into the gummi ship, docking down on the sun bleached port for the Coliseum. 

Yuffie all but tumbled out of the loading bay, throwing her arms wide and embracing the warmth. "We're here!" she sang, spinning in a circle on one foot. "C'mon Aerith, we gotta get you good seats so you can watch all the ass kicking with a _view_." 

Nobody was prepared for Phil to meet them at the entrance, his little stone tablet clutched under one arm and looking more dour than usual. Which took some doing and Yuffie spared a moment to fully appreciate what a legitimately cranky goatman looked like. 

"Sorry kid," he grumbled. "Only one fight today and I ain't letting you in on it." 

Yuffie stomped a foot and made a sound that _may_  have been a bit like a bird being strangled by its own food. "Why not?" she demanded. 

"Ya didn't rank high enough in the last tournament. Look, we got safety protocols in place so it ain't like you would actually _die_ in there, but no way no how am I letting nobody fight that monster that didn't come in top place." 

It looked like the afternoon wasn't a total wash after all. "So, that means Sora's in there?" 

Phil looked dark and pained and refused to look higher than Yuffie's shin. "Yeah. The kid's in there." 

"Can we at least go _watch_?" 

Phil sighed, defeated. "Sure. Whatever, kid probably needs all the moral support he can get anyhow." 

Yuffie had never actually been in the stands of the Coliseum. All fighters usually waited in another room down below until their number was called. Something seemed strange though, usually the sky was so clear and bright it was almost blinding. Today was full of towering purple clouds and a stiff breeze and an energy to the whole place that gave her the chills. 

"Gawrsh, is that Leon and the others?" Yuffie blinked, following the sound of the voice to a very morose looking Goofy and Donald. 

"Wait. You guys aren't fighting too?" 

They shook their head and from the droopy set of their shoulders, Yuffie had a feeling it wasn't by their choice. Any further line of questioning was cut off as Sora entered the ring, a gong sounding to inform the scattered masses that the round was about to start. 

Sora entered first and from this high up he looked so _small._ Yuffie had sparred against him enough to know that he could more than hold his own but it left a bitter taste in her mouth, watching him out there all alone on such a big, empty field. "Hey, who's he fighting anyway?" Usually there was a roster posted for the matches but this time there had only been a title: Platinum Match. 

Nobody could have foreseen it. The sky rending open over the field, the figure dropping down in a flurry of black leather and silken silver hair. He straightened to his full height, a solitary black wing unfurling from his back. 

Everything inside Yuffie went cold. Someone gasped. It may have been her. Aerith was clinging to her hand and when Yuffie was finally able to tear her eyes away from the scene below, she saw her friend had gone chalky and pale. 

"Sephiroth," Aerith mouthed. "He's alive." Her nails were cutting crescent grooves into Yuffie's hand but she couldn't feel it. She looked back just in time as Sora gave his first defiant cry and rushed his opponent. 

No. no that was the wrong thing to do, Sephiroth flicked Masamune out, barely moving his wrist, and the impossible sword caught Sora about the middle, flinging the boy back across the field. 

Cid must have caught on to the distress, leaned over to put an arm around either girl's shoulder. "Hey, Phil said there's safety protocols in place. He'll be okay." 

Yuffie tried to cling to those words, tried to hold on to the fact that just because Sephiroth was here didn't mean he was the same Sephiroth they left behind. They weren't the same people (except for the parts where they were but she had to believe because if she didn't she'd never find her breath again and her eyes were glued to the long wicked blade of his sword as it caught Sora neatly up, tossing him into the air again, never giving the kid a chance to get his feet under him.)

"Call it off." Yuffie tried to shout at Phil. "Call it off. Call it off! PHILL CALL IT OFF." and she was out of her seat, kunai drawn and barrelling down the empty stands because she saw Sora falling, rag doll limp, saw Sephiroth angle his sword upward like a skewer. She screamed wordlessly, bouncing off the barrier just in time for Phil to blow his whistle. 

The magic of the Coliseum reset the match. Sora stood, dazed and a little confused less than a foot from where Yuffie had been hammering at an invisible wall. He blinked at her before offering a dopey smile. "Oh, hey Yuffie. Came to support me, huh?" 

Yuffie did not cry because she could still see Sephiroth out of the corner of her eye, but she grabbed Sora by the wrist, pulling him towards her and when he tripped over his own feet with a started _woah_! she took the step forward so that he would collapse against her and she squeezed him as tightly as she could, face buried against his jacket and pointedly ignoring his wiggles and whispered "you're kind of hurting me here, yuffie." 

Sora was alright. She turned back to the stands and Aerith was a little white around the eyes but she gave Yuffie a shaky smile, still clinging to Cid's arm around her shoulder. Everyone was alright. 

Sephiroth furled his wing and made a low, pleased noise in the back of his throat. "I recognize you," he said with a voice like oil on water. "One of the puppet's little tag alongs." Sephiroth did not smile, Yuffie didn't think his face was capable of making such an expression, but a light came upon his eyes. He turned his head towards the stand, taking in the rest of their rag tag group for the first time. "More familiar faces. How...quaint." 

"If you even think of touching her I'll kill you." Yuffie snarled. She tucked Sora behind her, just to be safe, squared her shoulders and kept the tremor out of her voice. "Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of." 

Sephiroth regarded her with a long, cool stare. It felt like being measured by a beast that knew it could snap you in half without trying. "Is Cloud with you?" Yuffie did not answer and now Sephiroth twisted his face into something approaching mirth. "No matter, he will find me. He always does. Perhaps this time he will join me willingly. I do hate having to break my toys."

It was enough of a threat to make Yuffie's vision run red. She screamed, unhooking her shuriken from her back and barreled towards Sephiroth. From behind she heard Sora give a shout of surprise, Phil yelling about regulation fights. From the stands she heard Aerith scream and everything slowed down: Yuffie could count the beats of her heart, could see the thin dust on the coliseum floor as she kicked it up, could see Sephiroth with that same lazy flick of the wrist swing Masamune her direction and there were no protocols in place, nothing would protect her but that was alright, it would be worth it as long as he kept his hands off her friends. 

Someone caught her about the middle just as the tip of Masamune twisted up, grazing her chin. It stung like hellfire but the cut was shallow, meaningless in the end. Much like Yuffie's attempt on his life. 

"That's enough," Leon growled in her ear. His arms were like steel bars around her waist and he physically hauled her backwards, towards the exit. He never showed his back to Sephiroth though, which meant he had at least _some_  level of sense about him. 

Phil stood on a box so he could scream in her face about protocols and regulations and she screamed back just as loudly about psychopaths with skewers and neither one really heard the other. It took Hercules coming into the lobby to physically remove Phil, whispering something along the lines of "think about your blood pressure" but Yuffie continued shouting long after they disappeared down a darkened hallway. 

Cid had escorted Aerith into the lobby and her face was pale and her eyes were watery and Yuffie went to her instantly. "Don't do that again," Aerith sobbed against Yuffie's hair. "Don't ever scare me like that again." 

The adrenaline was fading and the weight of her actions were finally settling on Yuffie and she could barely hold herself up. She slid bonelessly out of Aerith's grasp to huddle on the floor, head between knees and hands fisting her own hair. "Shit!" she screamed. "He was right there and I was so scared!" She wasn't exactly crying although her eyes were leaking and her breath was coming in ragged gasps. "I was scared for you and Sora and me and even Cloud, wherever the fuck he even is and I couldn't just _stand_  there and just _shit."_ It wasn't the most eloquent of explanations but Yuffie felt a little like she might throw up and it was all she had. 

Aerith touched a cool hand to the back of Yuffie's neck. "I know, I know trust me but please don't ever be that reckless again. I don't know what we would do if we lost you like that." 

Cid offered to go get the ship started, Aerith decided to go with him. Yuffie thought they both needed fresh air after this and she waved them off, trying to get her hands to stop shaking. 

Leon stayed by her side, silent as ever. She sucked in air until it no longer felt like she was dying and she stayed on the floor until her bones stopped trying to vibrate out of her skin. He had to help her stand, and her knees were still weak and he surprisingly didn't protest when she clung to his elbow. Leon made a strange escort across the Coliseum courtyard to the ship. He was rigid, each step precise and Yuffie got the distinct impression that he was mad at her. 

She swallowed her worries, because really after this afternoon a row with Leon seemed like child's play, and managed to find her words. "You went after me." 

Leon's whole body flinched, like he had been hoping she wouldn't point that out or ask about it and now that she had it meant he had to own up to his actions too. "Of course I did." he growled. 

He said it like it was the most logical thing in the world. Yuffie replayed the situation in her head and every time she came to that moment where his arms closed around her, pulling her from the strike of the sword something in her brain goes ERROR, DOES NOT COMPUTE. "Why?" 

They're at the gate now and the gummi ship is idling towards them, kicking up the sand and just making everything generally hotter than it need be but Leon takes them no farther, waits on the steps leading out. "I thought it was obvious." His words are almost swallowed by all the noise, almost but not quite. He's looking straight ahead, at the oncoming gummi ship and not at her at all. "I don't know what I would do if I lost you." 

It was an echo of Aerith's earlier sentiment but.... different somehow. Yuffie was too exhausted to think on _how_ and just let the low timbre of his voice echo through her heart for the return trip home. 

_I_  she thinks about it later. _He said I, not we. That's the difference. I mean something to him_. And this revelation felt a lot like having an emotional bucket of ice water poured over ones head and Yuffie stopped where she was, which was the peaked roof of the hotel and one foot slipped and she almost took a nasty spill but she stuck a kunai into the roof and held on while her brain did all the processing for her. 

_What do I mean to him?_  

It was a question that would haunt her for precisely three days, until they were busy trying to clear out the second district _again_  (fifth time this week!) and her wandering mind caused a dumb Soldier to sink its claws into her arm, scoring her with three angry, bleeding marks and Leon chewed her out after the battle even as he poured a stinging healing potion on the injury and she decided that it didn't _matter_. 

Not really. 

At least... not right now. And she definitely didn't stare at him a little out the corner of her eye on the way home and she most certainly wasn't appreciating how broad his shoulders were when he took his jacket off. and she didn't think his hair was rather pretty and soft and....

Oh gods. No. Yuffie shook her head and forced this new.... whatever it was back into the mental closet whence it came and told herself she would not think about it ever again ever because this was _Leon._

(It worked. For a while. Things got busy and their world got turned around and they found themselves back at a place they thought they lost and there was no time for feelings. So Yuffie was safe from herself for a while. But nothing can stay hidden forever and that's a story for another day.) 


End file.
